ATLANTA — A major automaker that was accused of spying on drivers through onboard computer systems has agreed to a deal with federal regulators.
Channel 2 Investigative Reporter Justin Gray has been reporting for months that this data has been leading to higher insurance bills for drivers.
The Federal Trade Commission says consumers didn’t know that General Motors was collecting data about their driving through its OnStar system, let alone that they were selling it. Now, an order from the federal government is forcing them to stop.
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Temeika Clay told Gray her car insurance skyrocketed 80% last Spring after GM sold the OnStar data being collected on her Chevrolet Camaro without her knowledge.
She learned that GM shared 603 entries with data brokers, including acceleration events, high-speed events and hard break events through what they call its Smart Driver Program.
The new order from the FTC bans GM from selling or sharing driver data for the next five years.
“Never did I imagine it would be spying on us and sending information about driving habits. That’s just unbelievable,” Clay told Gray.
The FTC alleges in its complaint that GM “told consumers the driving data they collected from consumers would be used for the consumers’ own assessment of their driving habits. However, Respondents used their tracking technology to sell precise geolocation data and consumer driving behavior data without consumers’ consent.”
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GM shared a statement with Channel 2 Action News that read,
“Last year, we discontinued Smart Driver across all GM vehicles, unenrolled all customers, and ended our third-party telematics relationships with LexisNexis and Verisk. As part of the agreement, GM will obtain affirmative customer consent to collect, use, or disclose certain types of connected vehicle data.”
GM is signing onto that agreement to not track without consumer consent for the next 20 years as part of the settlement. It also requires GM to allow consumers to obtain and delete their data, as well as allow consumers to limit data collection from their vehicles.
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